Improvement in propulsion of vessels



PATENT GEErcE.A

WILLABD M. HARDING, OF CHELSEA, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN PROPULSION OF VESSELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 118,363, dated August 22, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLARD M. HARDING, of Chelsea, in the county of' Suffolk and State of' Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in J et-Propellers and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eX- act description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which the iigure represents, partly in section, the stern of a vessel with my improvement (in section) in position.

My invention relates to an improvement in the propeller patented to Patrick Burke, of Boston, Massachusetts, and assigned to me 5 and it consists in a supplemental inlet-pipe placed directly below the piston and opening1 downward through the bottom of the vessel, said inlet-pipe being provided with a valve opening inward in connection with a similar valve in the piston. The object of my invention is to facilitate the lling of the jet-pipe at each reflex stroke of the piston, and thus relieve the piston entirely of labor during its reflex movement, when the piston moves at a speed higher than the speed of the water under the pressure at the mouth of the jet-pipe.

That others may fully understand my invention, I will particularly describe it.

The propeller patented Ato Patrick Burke, as before mentioned, fully describes the construction and mode of operation of the apparatus of which this invention is an improvement, and I therefore make reference to the specification of said patent for a description of so much of this apparatus as does not pertain to my improvement.

Directly beneath the piston-cylinder A I place the pipe B, in size equal or nearly equal to the piston-cylinder. This pipe B opensI downward through the bottom of the vessel into the water in which she fioats, so that the water has free access to the interior of said pipe and exerts a pressure therein in proportion to the depth of submergence. At the upper end of the pipe B there is a valve, C, which opens upward and permits the water in pipe B to How into the cylinder when the piston E is raised, and when said piston descends the water so admitted is expelled at the nozzle F in the manner and with the effect set forth in thepatent ofBurkeheretofore mentioned.

The principal object of thisinvention is to avoid the retarding effect of suction below the piston when moving at very'high speed, and I therefore propose to employ, in connection with the 4valve C, a similar valve, D, placed in the piston E, only opening downward. This valve will open and admit air under the piston when it ascends, provided the inflow of' water is less rapid than the motion of said piston, and thus the labor of the engine will be materially diminished.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new is- In combination with the piston and jet-pipe of a propeller such as described, the inlet-pipe B opening downward through the bottom of the vessel and closed at its upper end by a valve, G,

as described, in connection with a similar valve, D, in said piston, the whole to operate as set forth.

VVILLARD M. HARDING. Witnesses:

JAMES MCKENZIE, CHAs. S. EATON. 

